There reaches a point when all the semantics, wordplay and pontificating fall away—when years of frustration are finally relieved. This is one of those moments. To be as blunt as the situation requires, it’s about fucking time The Offspring smashed its head into punk rock again. In the last eleven years, the band has chased its Dickies-inspired muse and released a succession of very novel records that were sweet, cutesy and poppy, and each yielded a couple of (easily dated...

Last month I argued that listening to an entire album is a superior experience to just listening to individual songs. Now I'm going to tackle the question of which is the better format on which to listen to an entire album—LP or CD? I realize that, for most of us, this is a moot question. Most of us couldn't listen to LPs any more, even if we wanted to. (My own turntable died long ago.) And many of us, nowadays,...

In celebration of their soon-to-be-released third album, O, Tilly and the Wall are about to head out on a 25-date jaunt around this great country of ours. I really hope it goes well because I just drove from L.A. to Chicago in a friggen Penske truck and we spent about $700 in gas to go 2200 miles. So we’re doing our part to help get these hardworkin’ Nebraskans some good ol’ fashioned lovin’. In return, Till and the Wall have...

Didn’t David Berman’s laconic on-the-lam storytelling match so well with Stephen Malkmus’ blazing guitarwork? Their dubious pairing made American Water one of the premiere on-the-road albums of not just the ‘90s but maybe all-time. After that musical landmark, Berman’s mainstay project has seen its fair share of artists arrive on the horizon and leave in the morning. The Jews’ revolving door lineup didn’t seem to help perfectly able but ultimately disappointing recent albums like Tanglewood Numbers and...

It’s summertime, and that means that there are a gajillion summer tours abound that kids and adults can flock to in hopes that they don’t have to sit through bands they hate while they wait patiently for the one they love. And the people behind me at the House of Blues in Chicago OBVIOUSLY were there to see Mr. Sexythang himself, Justin Warfiled of She Wants Revenge. From their remarks during The Virgins and Be Your Own Pet, they had...

Beck's long-awaited (unless you're immortal, in which case two years is the blink of an eye) followup to The Information has graduated from bastard-child whisper to full-fledged respectable today, as we finally get a name and release date on the Danger Mouse produced album. Modern Guilt will hit streets on July 8th, unless you live across the pond (those lucky Euros get to spend their euros a day earlier). According to Beck's camp, "Musically, the album's ten tracks vacillate between...

(This is Part 2 of our Live 105 2008 BFD Coverage. View Part 1 HERE.) From the moment the very proper-sounding Flogging Molly took the stage, it seemed like only a matter of time before a full-on mosh pit erupted. Looking like a reserved folk group in nice hats and jackets, and toting three guitars, a banjo and a violin, the seven-piece issued the first strains of “(No More) Paddy’s Lament” and already beer and water bottles were tossed into...

Some bands come readymade. That statement sounds like a slight, because critics have used the term as a synonym for ‘prefabricated,’ but in some cases, it can be complimentary. Bands like AC/DC, Green Day, Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Social Distortion appear on the public radar fully formed, with everything they’re shooting for in place and are just looking for a time—not a place—from which to begin and move forward. While small variations in personnel may occur that slightly...

On Saturday, June 7, the cool kids from all over the Bay—tan dudes with tattooed chests, punk chicks with pink hair, boys and girls sporting green Flogging Molly tees, and families with tiny tots—all converged on Mountain View’s Shoreline Amphitheatre for one reason: to rock. BFD, the Bay Area alternative radio station Live 105’s annual all-day shindig, brought out the crowds as well as some...

There would be no Jolly Rancher chews for Chuck Inglish last Tuesday night at The Independent in San Francisco. Mikey Rocks, the other part of the Chicago based duo, The Cool Kids, simply wouldn’t let him eat the sweets. There were too many rhymes to be laid down, and a mouth full of candy could have hurt the lyrical swagger that these two possess. Apparently, it’s not easy being fly. Before commandeering the stage from the L.A.-based trio, Pacific Division,...